Taras Shevchenko in the Library of Congress: A Bibliography

Introduction

The writings of Taras Shevchenko - a genius of the Ukrainian Nation - belongs to all nations. They cross from one continent to the next. Hundreds of monographic studies done in Ukrainian and other languages, written by Ukrainians and non Ukrainians around the world, could be compared with writings about Walt Whitman in the U.S.A. or Rainer Maria Rilke in Germany. His works and literature about him are widely represented in the Library of Congress.

Taras Shevchenko in the Library of Congress (A Bibliography) reflects the holdings in the Library of Congress. We present all holdings in the Nation's Library : books, pamphlets and microforms. It lists all works by the Ukrainian poet and literature about him which is housed in our collection.

The collections of the Library are unique. It encompasses publications published in Ukraine - motherland of poet - and many titles which were published in the Western world unknown to Ukrainians in their homeland. To fill this gap and present to Ukrainians in Ukraine all holdings produced in West, The European Division was instrumental in preparation of this bibliography. It depicts wide spectrum of interest by researchers of Shevchenko power in the world, his influence on contemporary as well as on descendants.

The Index published by the Library of Congress is for researchers of Shevchenko, for the librarians, bibliographers and bibliophiles, to all who are studying and are interested in the intellectual and spiritual heritage of Ukrainian nation.

All material in the index has been divided into nine chapters. In the chapter Works of T. Shevchenko titles in the original language are placed in the following order: works, selected works and special publication according Latin alphabet. Bibliographic entries were made according Anglo-American cataloging rules used in the Library of Congress. All titles in this bibliography have been examined de visu, all bibliographical data was verified. All titles and authors names are arranged by main entry in a numbered alphabetical sequence. They are transliterated according Library of Congress system, including diacritical marks.

Geographic names of location on the territory of Ukraine or other countries are cited in accordance with present system of the U.S. Board of Geographical Names. Call numbers are included; some entries are annotated. In few cases cited work (according contents) might be placed in more than one chapter; basic bibliographical entry is registered with main subject and cross references are depicted by numerical position at the end of chapter. The titles in the chapter on "Translations" are grouped according language in which specific work has been published.

Three auxiliary indexes are provided: name (which provides an access to main index by authors, co-authors, compilers, translators and editors) chronological and geographical.

We would like to thank Acting Chief of European Division David H. Kraus for supporting the project, his friendly assistance and valuable advise, Stefan Maksymjuk, collector of Ukrainian discography for information of records housed at Music Division of Library of Congress, Stephen Cranton, Computer Specialist in the European Division for his patience in formatting the text and Kateryna Konchakovska, an intern in the Library of Congress (Kyïv, Ukraine) for her bibliographical research, technical assistance and editorial skills in rewriting and creating a database maintained on Procite 2.1.1, editing and proofreading in WordPerfect 6.1.

Bohdan Yasinsky, Valentyna Pashkova